Washington, DC

— Today, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), the National Association of Social Workers, the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and Re:Gender (formerly the National Council for Research on Women) submitted an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case,

Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole

, which challenges legislation in Texas that would close most of the state’s abortion clinics. The IWPR brief is

one of 45

filed today by a range of experts from medicine and many other fields.

The IWPR brief outlines the particularly poor health and well-being outcomes facing women and their families in the state of Texas, including higher cancer incidence and mortality rates, lower life expectancy, and lack of access to affordable health and prenatal care. The brief explains how these poor health outcomes in part reflect policy choices of the Texas legislature. As the organizations state in the brief, “when Texas claims that it passed Texas House Bill No. 2 (‘H.B. 2’) to raise the standard of care and ensure the health and safety of women and their families, this Court should assess that claim in the context of Texas’s sustained failure to improve the health and welfare of women and children in Texas.”

Heidi Hartmann, Ph.D., IWPR President and CEO states:

“IWPR’s Status of Women in the States project consistently shows that

Texas

fails to measure up on the status of women in almost every category. In 2015, Texas ranked lower than the majority of states in every category tracked by our researchers, including Health & Well-Being, Reproductive Rights, and Poverty & Opportunity. The state ranked 47

^th

overall and made IWPR’s list of

worst states for women

, a dubious distinction that the state also received when IWPR last calculated state scores in 2004. These data reflect a troubling lack of progress in improving the health, social, economic, and political outcomes of women in the state since then.

“Policies that increase women’s access to health care and strengthen their economic security would be key to improving the status of women in Texas. H.B. 2 would only serve to hinder progress for women in the state.”

Read the

full amicus brief

online.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR)


is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that conducts rigorous research and disseminates its findings to address the needs of women and their families, promote public dialogue, and strengthen communities and societies.